Art by Alison Hunt
(This is part of the section of Do I Need to Use a Dragon? that delves into using magic as a ‘cure all’. There’s a common joke that ‘a wizard did it’ and a common argument that ‘a wizard could do it’. People look at magic as the solution to everything once it’s introduced to a world. As a fantasy author, I’ve had to tackle this question and mold my world to explain why it doesn’t work that way. So, I had a lot of fun with this topic.)
what I have to get out of my system.
In Legends of Windemere, I have the character, Nyx, who is a powerful caster. I lost count of the number of times people asked me why she didn’t just blow up *insert obstacle*. This gets frustrating because the question ignores that some challenges are clearly for other characters, so Nyx wouldn’t get involved to that extent. It ignores her personality and the basics of group dynamics. She’s aware her friends will be angry if she blasts away their rivals and obstacles. Not to mention it means she’d reach the final battle against a superior enemy alongside a band of weak allies.
This question also treats magic like a cure-all for every situation, which isn’t how it should be, even in worlds where it’s plentiful. Readers may miss the nuances of this, so this question will exist for as long as people write fantasy stories. As authors, we should be more aware of this and have an explanation as to why the caster doesn’t do it by themselves.
Do I blame readers for asking this question? Not really because it’s a legitimate point in several cases. The audience might not realize the reasons behind magic not being used to solve everything because the author doesn’t make it clear. That isn’t to say it’s the author’s fault. Many factors fall into the use of magic in stories, as long as it isn’t being thrown around without consequence. If that’s the case then there’s fewer reasons for casters to solve every problem with a spell, which brings us to a truth about writing.
We depend a lot on readers catching the nuances of characters, worlds, and situations in order to avoid spelling everything out for them. Doing so can make a story boring and offend people who think they’re being looked at as simple-minded. So, an author has to work off established rules and themes without bringing blunt attention to their existence. A rampaging monster not being stopped by the powerful caster can be seen by a reader as a mistake while the author is hoping for them to see the limitations of the world’s magic. Just another reason why some people go for low and limited magic since the more of it that’s around, the louder the question.
The real question that should be asked at this point is:
Why CAN’T a caster fix it?
While it’s up to the author to give a clear reason for this, there are traditional explanations that can be modified for the story. These relate to world-building and characters, but they can have some of the most profound effects on quest progression:
Legends of Windemere 